Got some vikes, AB, and a nap for my ear infection, decided to check email, found a link to this poll so figured I’d better pass it on. I was surprised.
Here’s question 88:
88. Which statement comes closest to your view about global warming? 1. Global warming is caused mostly by human activity such as burning fossil fuels or 2. Global warming is caused mostly by natural patterns in the earth’s environment. or 3. Global warming does not exist.
And here’s the results:
12 percent don’t think global warming exists. 42 percent say it’s man-made and 33 percent say it’s natural. 7 percent say it is a mixture of both, and 6 percent are in the “I dunno” or didn’t answer category. With only 42 percent saying it is human caused, that puts it in the minority view.
But what I think is even more telling is the fact that it didn’t even show up on the radar in question 3, which asks:
I’m sure “global warming” was in there somewhere, perhaps in the 14 percent of “other” responses seen near the end, but even with Al Gore’s recent media event to try to bring it to the forefront again, it appears to have had zero effect. Also telling: “Environment” gets less than 1 percent.
It’s jobs and economy which get the lions share of concern, which just goes to show that if people are poor, out of work, and hungry, they don’t have time to worry about elitist causes like Al Gore’s global warming crusade.
The poll with all questions is here: http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/250094/new-york-times-cbs-poll-results.pdf
The NYT news story on it is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/us/politics/obamas-support-is-slipping-poll-finds-but-his-jobs-plan-is-well-received.html?_r=1
The New York Times slogan isn’t “All the News That Fits We Print” for nothing. I’d check the internals of any poll of theirs before giving it any serious thought. And then I’d think twice anyway.
Doesn’t matter what the public thinks or cares about – it’s what the gov’t elites want. They think it’s hip slick and cool to prance about flaunting their ecosanctimony. The pope of global warming may not have as many supplicants kissing his ring these days, but they have achieved sainthood in their own minds – why would they give that up?
Przemysław Pawełczyk says:
September 17, 2011 at 6:27 pm
“Tell me then how much relevant they are, the polls? ”
Extremely relevant! Simply see…..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903927204576573113505308544.html
…….and then maybe you will wise up! Nothing like a vote loser to scare a politician into some common sense!
P.G. Sharrow says:
September 17, 2011 at 10:47 pm
@R. Gates says:
September 17, 2011 at 10:18 pm
“Your comment would imply that you know anything about me, which you don’t, so your comment falls into the meaningless category.”
You have exposed yourself on this site for many months. You are judged by your words. pg
______
Yes, I know my strong grounding in the facts and the science behind AGW don’t sit well with the overwhelming numbers of skeptics here. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…
Human activity leads to a lot of global pollution, NOT global warming.
Current western government policy is going to lead to a very high global
death rate. This will impact the developing nations as well.
I am beginning to suspect this is deliberate.
Our “leaders” can’t be that stupid!?!?!
Must be me. I’m preparing anyway.
Strong grounding in science and facts? That’s a real larff, Gates. One could write a book about how many times you have been shown up here to have no knowledge of science or facts or common sense and just possessing a blind, slave like allegiance to the AGW Church.
You have been consistently spanked here and proven wrong about anything you post WRT climate science and AGW.
Pete H says:
September 17, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Przemysław Pawełczyk says:
September 17, 2011 at 6:27 pm
“Tell me then how much relevant they are, the polls? ”
Extremely relevant! Simply see…..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903927204576573113505308544.html
…….and then maybe you will wise up!
I hoped my rant was read as a sort of sneer. Now I am dumbfounded. 😉 I know well why the polls are so popular. They serves two Masters – politicians, and “the elites”, both of which like to brainwash prospective voters!
Regards
And R. Rates, the below comment was given by Jeff ID in his blog, in response to another similar troll about AGW
” As a class exercise, which will take the next ten years of your life, prove warming measurements are accurate AND caused by anthropogenic CO2. Even better, prove that they are unprecedented. ”
This fits your case also very well. So the same challenge applies to you also.
To verify the NYT findings why not ask WUWT readers the same questions, the results could then be analysed and conclusions extracted from the data.
/sarc
In the UK for the last few years there has been a large build up with off people following moral crusades about many things, not just environment but health issues and ethical food supplies. Now that money is drying up for everyone all these groovy ideas are being abondoned faster that the Titanic. Trendy liberals will shout and scream until it actually costs them something then they scatter but unfortunately they never get brought to book for the damage inflicted.
From another poll this week http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/us-usa-poll-ipsos-idUSTRE78D5B220110915
“The percentage of Americans who believe the Earth has been warming rose to 83 percent from 75 percent last year in the poll conducted Sept 8-12.”
and
“Some 71 percent of the Americans who believe warming is happening think that it is caused either partly or mostly by humans, while 27 percent believe its is the result of natural causes, the poll found.”
I should add a point here that wattsupwiththat.com thought to be not very important viz. the poll was conducted only among Republican voters.
Convenient, eh?
I think it’s alarming and sad that 42% still think it’s human induced.
Climate change? Yes.
Global Warming? Yes.
Man caused? No.
The Earth has experienced at least 7 Ice Ages and subsequent thaws.
I like to call that Global Winter follow by Global Spring. The Global Spring brings the melting of the ice which causes flooding.
As a child I walked the desert floor. I looked down at my feet and next to them I saw…sea shells…on the desert floor. Approximately 135 million years ago there was an inland sea stretching from Canada to the southwestern part of the U.S. Florida was also under water at that time too.
We don’t need the blusterous Al Gore telling us that he, a weatherman and some hiker have discover Global Warming/Climate Change and since humans are producing green house gases at an alarming rate it must be man cause. Well that and Al figure how to make a ton of money off of Global Warming/Climate Change if only you Global Warming “Deniers” would just fall into line.
According to Mr. Gore all of the world’s scientists — who are getting grants tied to their unscientific acceptance of Man Caused Global Warming — are on board with his junk theory. Their’s is the superior science…forget about geological proof that climate change was happening before man walk upon the Earth, passed gas or [gasp] exhaled.
R. Gates says:
September 17, 2011 at 11:40 pm
”Yes, I know my strong grounding in the facts and the science behind AGW don’t sit well with the overwhelming numbers of skeptics here. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…”
Well that statement suggests that you are:
1) insufficiently knowledgeable to be definitive – a ‘grounding’ in facts is hardly expertise, is it?
2) Likely only interested in trolling rather than actually learning or teaching anything, as the indicative bias is clear to see. I.e., you are here as a faith administrator rather than a scientist! It is hardly a job, either – is it?
3) Unlikely to be from a true science background, (and therefore potentially even less knowledgeable?) as a true scientist would be unlikely make such a statement. A true scientist is interested in only the science, not the surrounding BS or ideology.
4) Perhaps Ideologically based – as indicated by the ‘someone has to do it’ element…as that clearly begs the question, why? – if the theory and evidence is so clear – we would all ‘get it’!!!
5) Perhaps needing to feel some self importance ? – clearly, the majority here are skeptics and so what possible benefit do you think you are having?
Many here seek answers, or are querying the ‘concensus’. That Sir, is the real essence of the science. Your (AGW) facts are largely unproven – if they were proven, we wouldn’t be here. (I accept there would always be diehards regarding any theory – but in this case there are an awful lot of folk who cannot and don’t buy into the AGW theory, and even less who buy into the CAGW aspect!) You must accept that you are in the minority and therefore must be absolutely clear in your ‘proofs’ in order to persuade the majority. Alleged Concensus is not proof! Peer review – is not proof! Models are not proof!
And I wonder how many of the 42% who think global warming is caused by human activity think it is dangerous.
OT or…
It’s the sun, stupid!
“NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey confirmed with SPACE.com earlier today that the reason UARS is expected to fall early in its re-entry window is because of the sharp uptick in solar activity. Solar effects from the sun can create an extra drag on satellites in space because they can heat the Earth’s atmosphere, causing it to expand, agency officials have said.”
ups, forgot the link to the above; http://www.space.com/12982-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-earth-sept-24.html
The number of believers still needs to be much smaller. It’s only a few points away from being a majority. Which leads me to the problem of democracy: a system where 51% tells the other 49% what to do.
Rawneck says:
September 18, 2011 at 1:28 am
Not political convenience at all if you bother to look at what is most important to the respondents:
“It’s jobs and the economy, stupid”.
More like political mass exodus away from the label of a floundering Administration.
The 1 to 0 percent for “environment” may reflect a backlash against extreme environmental and CAGW propaganda over the last fifty years. It is unfortunate because the world human population and human use of energy is growing. Humans are changing the landscape in ways not seen before. Dr. Pielke, Sr. has some interesting information on this at his blog.
I share the concern many here have about the tyranny of the extreme greens. But I hope we will not neglect good science related to the environment in the process.
It will be a difficult continuing effort to sort out the good science from the extreme. WUWT is a valuable resource in that process.
There are obviously a lot of biases in a poll like this but given the readership base of the NYT this is a very interesting result. For each individual respondent their belief is partly driven by the rational and partly by the irrational. Many of the respondents may well be trained scientists others not so. Some will be driven by the politics of the right, others by the left and some only barely able to raise the energy to vote at all. If we assume that the irrational is idiosyncratic prejudice with respect to the underlying reality of this issue then the polling process will mostly cancel the irrational revealing where the rational element of belief is located. This is the wisdom of the crowds effect of course and although nothing is perfect this strongly suggests that the rational consensus has given due weight to the AGW proposition but on the balance is skeptical. That is my sense of where this debate is at.
ps: to Anthony Watts – along with many others here I am sure I do hope you are well on the mend.
Louise says:
September 18, 2011 at 1:03 am
Great. Now go back and check who among pollsters gets the general population mood right, and who doesn’t.
The one you cited was a political response to the positions taken by the majority of the GOP candidates.
The taker of the poll had no intention of representing anything but a party line, and made no bones about it. The piece of information you don’t have is how the general population aligns itself, whether Dem, GOP, Independent, Tea Party, etc. That takes a lot of work, and there be few who will go to that length.
Przemysław Pawełczyk
Except remember, those who are more scientifically literate tend to be more skeptical of AGW catastrophe.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1871503
Its not a surprise in times of plenty people can indulge in flights of fancy , in times of stress people revert to what they really care about .
Allanj that is the house of cards problem crated by the extreme greens and the silence of others in the scientific/environmental area to what was going on in climate science. A rod they very much created for their own back.